U12's League: Close Call

A strong squad arrived in Peterlee hoping for a good result against a team we had not beaten in the past. Before the match the game plan was to give the opposition no time and to hassle the mistakes out of them and to a man the Rockets stuck to the plan.

The first half was a tight affair with both side completing a number of sets without breaking the deadlock. Rockets contained Peterlees dangerous loose forward well and tackled with spirit. With around 20 minutes gone Peterlee managed to move the ball wide and their loose forward found some space to run half the pitch to score under the posts. With the kick unsuccessful the half ended 4-0 to the home team.

With a slight slope advantage it the second half the Rockets attacked with conviction and some great runs by Max, Oliver and Ewan got us good yardage, it was such a storming run 5 mins into the second half which allowed Ewan to twist and turn and stretch to put the ball over the whitewash for a score which was converted by Michael Wood to give Cramlington the lead for the first time.

With their tails up the rockets continued to work tirelessly all over the pitch, not giving the opposition a chance and when Adam Pattinson went over to score with 15 mins to go things were looking good as Peterlee heads went down.

But a knock on and a couple of missed tackles allowed Peterlee to score to close the gap to 10-8 with 10 mins to go. As the workload began to take its toll, the big players for Peterlee sensed a score and again their loose forward was able to break the line and score with only 3 minutes to go.

But Cramlington would not concede defeat and charged the kickoff and pinned Peterlee in their own half winning a turn over ball, and with the refs watch alarm ringing for full time Ewan received the ball from Ollie and charged for the line crossing near the posts for a last gasp try. Adam Pattinson converting as the ref blew the whistle for time to give a final score of 12-16

The performance was fantastic and brought tears to the eyes on one coach. With 2 tries and endless tackles man of the match was Ewan, but we could have chosen any of the 20 players there today

It was a great team performance, unfortunately there were some who got little or no game time, they need to know that they are as much part of the team as anyone. We are organising more games to ensure all squad players get plenty of game time as it is vital for their development.